The Victory
by DamoDamo
Summary: The final battle against the Crayak as envisioned by me. There is a lot more to the story, leading up to this climax, but I can't be bothered to write the lot.


This is the climax to a follow up to the series that I thought about, but never wrote. Essentially, the One is a servant of Crayak, his new creature to try and dominate the galaxy, a replacement for both the Yeerks and Howlers. This creature consumes the body and mind of it's victims, destroying them and using them like the yeerks did, but it has a single will.

During the War, Jake steadily advances in rank, eventually becoming a sort of general commander of both Yeerk and Andalite forces. Tobias is his helmsmen in most circumstances, while Marco acts as his tactical officer.

After many adventures, including making a deal with Ellimist to resurrect Rachel's mind (he implants it in the starship, Rachel) Jake returns to earth with the Time Matrix in an effort to drop it into the sun with the intent of putting the whole system into a sort of time slip to protect it from the One, who is winning the war. He clones Rachel and puts her mind in the body and abandons Tobias and Marco on Earth as he flies back to the war with Cassie hitchhiking on board.

Later, with the One defeated, he returns in his new ship, the _Aximili_, leaves Cassie on earth, and takes the Time Matrix before disappearing.

The Time Matrix hummed, increasing in volume. The timer counted down. From1:00 to 0:59, and all the while Crayak raged at me, screamed his threats and promises. I didn't care, in 0:57 seconds, we'd both be gone. I closed my eyes; I didn't want to end my life listening to his hatred and lies, so I pictured the faces of the others in my mind. I saw Ax first, not as the monster the One turned him into, as I remembered him from our time together on Earth, in human form, scarfing a cinnamon bun bigger than my head, then sounding out every word, the first to call me Prince. Next I remembered Tobias. How many battles had he followed me into, against the Yeerks and, later, all those space battles against the One? He had never complained, never argued, never run away. He really was Elfangor's son. He was the first person to call me a leader, what a prophecy that had turned out to be. Marco, my friend, came next. He had been there with Tobias the whole way, making sarcastic remarks every chance he got. He'd kept me sane, all those years of warfare, kept a sense of familiarity when the entire world had gone mad, and home was left a hundred thousand miles away. I saw Rachel, again as she had been back on Earth, because that's who she still was, with her new body, regenerated from her old. She had lost nothing of her ferocity, her spirit, her loyalty. Without me, the human race would need a leader to liaise with the alien peoples, and I knew that she, of all people, would be able to lead humanity to the stars.

Finally, Cassie's face wafted into my head. The woman I loved. Still love. I thought of the baby in her, my baby. My eyes filled with tears as I realised that I would never see her again, and she would never see me, and I would never meet my child. But I didn't have a choice. Crayak had to go, and this was the only way to destroy a creature that transcended time and space. I held on to Cassie's face, determined that it should be the last thing I see in this life.

The timer counted down. The first thing I noticed was a ripple, Crayak felt it too, and his raging hatred quieted. I opened my eyes just as a jagged hole opened in the underverse, its edges flaming like novaed stars. Crayak laughed, and I felt rather than saw the defensive shield of the Time Matrix disrupted.

"NO!" I cried, even as Crayak screamed in triumph.

"DRODE!"

The red creature leapt across the divide, I looked at the timer, 0:35, no way I could hold him, no time to morph!

Something dropped from the hole and struck the ground right in front of the Drode. With a terrifying roar the Flear rose up and smashed the Drode across the face with one huge, furry talon.

It's time we finished this, you and me, Drode Rachel snarled as the Drode climbed to his feet.

"JAKE!" I looked up, and the _Aximili_, one side ripped away by the forces at play, dropped through the hole in space. And there, on the deck, Cassie reached out her hand.

"NOOOOO!" Crayak roared as I reached up. The universe trembled as his tendrils reached through reality, and then stopped, halted.

"Tobias," Cassie cried over her shoulder, "Bring us closer!"

Too much turbulence he shouted, We'll slip all the way through

As he said it the _Aximili_ lurched, and Cassie, screaming, fell out.

"Cassie!"

A dark, hairy arm snaked out from the ship, grasped Cassie's arm in a monkey grip.

Jake, the gorilla called, Hurry!

I jumped, grabbed Cassie's flailing arm, and was lifted effortlessly to safety. I glanced back, Rachel was on her back and the Drode was heading for the Time Matrix.

"RACHEL!" I shouted, "Don't let him get to the Matrix!" I ran back into the ship, we had no time left, "Tobias, pull us out on my mark."

I'm not leaving her here, Jake, Tobias snapped, I won't lose her again

"No one's asking you to," I said as I opened up the armoury. I stalked back to the breach in the hull with the comfortable weight in my arms. I took aim.

"Rachel," I yelled, "Back to the ship."

One arm bloodied, and an eye gouged out, Rachel flexed her Sirian Flear morph's massive, flea-like legs and fired, launching herself to the hull of the ship, where her talons sunk into the metal.

The Drode had fared little better. One of his legs failed him and he crawled towards the Time Matrix. His fingers reached up to the control panel, and Crayak roared with glee. His laughter turned to screams as the Drode's skull sizzled in the beam of my Shredder, and the hand fell back.

0:05

"Tobias, now!"

Rachel vaulted back into the ship itself, as the engines flared, and the hole in space closed with us on one side, and Crayak, the shattered remains of his servant, and the Time Matrix bomb on the other.

I don't know how many people felt it. Theoretically, the shockwave should have been felt in equal parts across the entire universe, every instant, dissipated across all realities, blending quietly with the background hum, the leftover echoes of destruction alongside the remnants of the big bang. But I swear I could feel it, the death throes of the once godlike Crayak, consumed in the eternal nothing of the Time Sink.


End file.
